The man who was arrested Thursday with weapons in his van near the residence of former president Barack Obama had been acting erratically and espousing baseless claims that even some of the most ardent Jan. 6 defendants found distasteful, according to multiple people who said they recently interacted with the man.
Taylor Taranto, 37, was detained on an arrest warrant for four counts of misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol. A federal judge on Friday ordered him held pending a detention hearing, saying he was a flight risk and could be mentally unstable.
Taranto did not speak except to request a court-appointed lawyer, acknowledge the judge’s instructions and answer some initial questions about his background.
A video reposted on YouTube appears to show Taranto on Thursday live-streaming his journey near Obama’s home in Kalorama. He started the video saying he was heading to “the Podestas’ house” — referring to the family of John Podesta, former chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Later, after walking, he said, “I’m outside Barack Obama’s house.” He talked about “investigating” and “tunnels” for much of the video and, at one point, appeared to acknowledge the risk he was taking.
“Don’t have any ID,” he said on the live stream. “In case I get, you know, detained or something, they’re going to have to just use their cellphone to figure out who I am.”
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys attributed statements made on similar videos by the same man to Taranto.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin Cloherty said Taranto had been living in a van on the 1900 block of E Street in Southeast as part of a group of demonstrators who support Jan. 6 detainees “but is no longer part of that group.” A search of his van found near the location of his arrest turned up two guns, 400 rounds of ammunition and machetes, according to Cloherty.
Multiple Jan. 6 demonstrators outside of the D.C. jail said they had kicked Taranto out of their group on Saturday after he attempted to play a video that showed the death of Ashli Babbitt in front of her mother.
One of those people, Tamara Perryman, said that she last saw Taranto on Monday night and that he appeared incoherent — “arms flailing about, bobbing his head, making incoherent statements.”
Tommy Tatum, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and also attends nightly demonstrations outside of the D.C. jail, said that “there was something really, really off about that guy.” Tatum was one of the people who reposted a portion of Taranto’s live stream on YouTube.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Katie Guevara said Taranto had lived since 2008 in Washington state with his wife and came to D.C. to pursue what she called the public offer of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) let Jan. 6 defendants review footage of Capitol security video. She said that Taranto’s wife in Washington state and her parents in Connecticut were willing to house Taranto pending trial and that he had zero criminal history.
Patrick Gaspard — president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, which was founded by Podesta — said in a statement that “we’re relieved that no one was harmed” and decried extreme right-wing rhetoric that has turned Obama and Podesta into targets.
The Franklin County Republican Party in Washington state, in a statement Friday, said the group had removed Taranto from his position as webmaster and as an active member in 2022 because of “his radical and erratic social media posts that did not align with our values.”
Stephen Bauman, the group’s chairman, wrote in the statement that Taranto had told the Franklin County Republican Party that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from former military service.
Taranto served in the Navy for six years until November 2010 and was deployed to Iraq, according to a service record provided by the Navy. Although the record does not detail his deployments, his awards and decorations show that he received an Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and a Combat Action Ribbon, indicating he saw some form of combat during his service.
Efforts to reach Taranto’s family were not successful.
Jaclyn Spainhour — president of the Congressional Cemetery near the D.C. jail — said she had seen Taranto parked in his van on E Street in Southeast Washington for the last two weeks and has repeatedly attempted to alert authorities about that group.
In an email Friday afternoon to her neighborhood commissioners and D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), which was reviewed by The Washington Post, Spainhour wrote that “at least two protestors live in their cars and park there 12 or more hours daily” and that the “cemetery has been harassed and victimized” by the group.
Allen said he has contacted D.C. police many times with concerns about the demonstrators.
D.C. police did not answer questions about their response to such complaints.
Videos and posts on social media show Taranto championing extremist, unfounded and violent beliefs, including calls to “kill them all” when sharing articles about political leaders like Obama, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online extremism.
Rita Katz, the group’s executive director, said SITE linked Taranto to his social media accounts by cross-checking them with his public records. He had an active YouTube channel that was under his name and included videos of himself speaking and inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, she said.
“Review of his posts revealed an obsession with Trump and conspiracy theories,” Katz wrote. She added: “In recent weeks, many of his posts included reports referring to Obama as ‘coaching up left-wing house Democrats in private meetings’ and claiming Obama is contributing to a shadow government aimed at destroying Trump.”
The most recent post on the Telegram channel that SITE connected to Taranto was a link to an article that included Obama’s home address and the headline: “Inside Obama’s Kalorama Mansion; Secret Tunnels and a War Room.” One commenter on the Thursday post wrote: “You OK brother?”
Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff contributed to this report.